Romain Grosjean extends his apologies to McLaren following contentious and baseless remarks.

Formula 1 analyst and Canal+ commentator Romain Grosjean has issued a public apology to McLaren and Zak Brown following remarks made during the broadcast of the Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring.

During his time in Madrid for the Spanish GP, the Frenchman strongly criticized comments made by the McLaren team principal during Sunday’s race, initially believing that statements made after qualifying had negatively impacted Oscar Piastri's confidence.

"I heard a remark from Zak Brown concerning Lando Norris' lap, he tore Oscar Piastri apart with scissors and a chainsaw right there," Romain Grosjean stated, after reigning world champion Norris had secured pole position at the Madring the previous day. "If Piastri had any confidence left, he definitely doesn’t have it anymore."

"The severity, the brutality of that statement... The inquiry was about Norris’ impressive qualifying performance and he was asked to explain the disparity. Essentially, he claimed that Lando, being the world champion, was superior to Oscar."

"He seemed to overlook that last year, Oscar was leading the championship, and at Monza, they requested him to allow Lando to pass, which perhaps wasn’t the right call at that moment. It was shocking, truly shocking, and it left me at a loss for words when I heard that comment."

The issue was that Brown had not actually made those remarks. Grosjean had misinterpreted the comments made by the McLaren chief during an interview following qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix on F1 TV, which included Juan Pablo Montoya, Jolyon Palmer... and Grosjean himself.

Zak Brown praised his driver's qualifying performance

"The entire lap was outstanding, and Lando’s continually improving," Brown had remarked. "When you witness a lap like that, you just think, ‘he’s a world champion’."

Then, when Montoya inquired about the performance gap between his two drivers, he added: "I think a) you saw Lando at his absolute best, right? So, I don’t believe there was any more time to gain there. He achieved that."

"Oscar has been right there with him all weekend but just didn’t manage to get that same extra lap. We’ll keep analyzing. He’ll review the data and probably join us all in saying, 'wow, what a lap' as well."

Grosjean’s remarks on Canal+ during the live race broadcast did not go unnoticed and were widely circulated and discussed, especially across social media platforms.

On Sunday evening, this prompted the Frenchman to apologize for his comments, clarifying that he had indeed misinterpreted Brown’s statements.

"Today, I made a comment on Canal+ regarding Zak Brown’s remarks about Oscar Piastri during an interview yesterday on F1 TV, which I participated in,” he wrote.

"I completely misinterpreted his words and I want to express my apologies for that. I understand how crucial it is for Zak and the entire McLaren team to honor their drivers and treat them with fairness and equality.

"McLaren had the quickest car today and faced some misfortune with the VSC. I’m confident that both Lando and Oscar will have another opportunity to contest for the victory in Baku."